Acxiom revenue down slightly

Acxiom Corp. reported that revenue for its marketing and data services companies for the third quarter of its 2012 fiscal year was $188 million, down from $189 million during the same quarter last fiscal year.

U.S. revenue was up 2% to $155 million in the third quarter, but was offset by declines in the international business, according to a Jan. 31 earnings statement. Income from operations for the third quarter was up 2% to $22 million year-over-year.

For fiscal Q3 2012, Acxiom's revenue from continuing operations decreased to $281 million from $288 million in fiscal Q3 2011, a decrease of 2% year-over-year. For the fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2011, Acxiom's revenue was up 5.5% to $1.160 billion. Of the revenue increase, $10.1 million was related to the Middle East-North America and GoDigital acquisitions, according to the agency.

Acxiom CEO and president Scott Howe, said in an earnings call Jan. 31 that the company is focusing on improving its top management team.

“We aspire to increase the speed and efficiency of everything we do and to update the quality of the senior leadership,” he said.

Howe said that when he joined the company the hierarchy was confusing, prompting him to work to reorganize the C-suite. New hires include Warren Jenson as EVP and CFO and Nada Stirratt, who joined the company Jan. 31 as its first chief revenue officer. Howe said that the company is still looking for a chief product officer to round out the executive team.

Howe said Acxiom will focus on the needs of its largest clients. “We want to build to the highest common denominator knowing that if we build products that our largest clients embrace, the rest of the market will follow.” He also said that the company would address the “downward pressure” from “unprofitable clients” by raising prices or by becoming more efficient. “We're still evaluating the timing and insights of what this might look like,” he said.

The company will also be focusing on data services and will build what he called an “enterprise data platform”. The company plans to increase its investment to about $30 million to help build this platform and will release new updates every month. Howe said that this investment will help grow the business by expanding the company's leadership in the digital marketing space.

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